Method and apparatus for enabling control of task execution

[73]

Ralph E. Jennings, Jr.; Benjamin P. Haley, Jr., both of Madison; R. D. Holland, Somerville; Deborah K. Cecil; Anthony E. Tassone, both of Madison, all of Ala.

Assignee: Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, Ala.

[21] Appl. No.: 235,595
[22] Filed: Apr. 29, 1994

[51] Int. CI.6 G06F 9/46

[52] U.S. CI 395/650; 364/DIG. 1;

364/281.7; 364/281.8 [58] Field of Search 395/650

[56] References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 4,553,202 11/1985 Trufyn 364/DIG. 1

5,371,887 5,394,547

12/1994 2/1995

Yoshidaetal 395/650

Correnti et al 395/650

Primary Examiner—Thomas M. Heckler

Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Townsend and Townsend and

Crew LLP

A system is disclosed which enables a user of a computer system to have direct control over the priorities assigned to the execution of tasks requested by the user. The user establishes a user tolerance level indicative of the delay the user is willing to tolerate before a task is assigned to background manager. Then whenever a task is requested by the user, a calculation is made to determine whether the task will require more or less time than the user tolerance. If the task requires more time, it is assigned to the control of a background manager, while if it requires less time, it is executed to completion immediately without further instruction from the user. The background manager handles the execution of all background tasks, maintaining the proper order for data consistency, yet allowing the user to rearrange execution priorities when necessary.

33 Claims, 14 Drawing Sheets